Patent EP-0122583-A1 (EP)
Inventor: TENDERO LOUIS
IPC: F16D3/16
Filed: 1984-04-10
Abstract: 1. A toothed coupling device for oscillating shafts, in particular shafts oscillating over a small angle, - comprising a first end-piece (1) having a solid block (1a) suitable for attachement to a front end of a first shaft (A1) to be coupled, said first end-piece having a longitudinal axis (9) and including a toothing (5, 6) forming convex cylindrical bearing surfaces of rotational symmetry about a first oscillation axis (20) perpendicular to the axis of the end-piece at a coupling center (10), said toothing being connected to the solid block of the end-piece by an intermediate portion constituting a base (5a, 6a) for said toothing and severing to retain and to said toothing from said solid block, - and comprising a second end-piece (2) having a solid block (2a) suitable for attachement to a front end of a second shaft (A2) to be coupled facing the front end of the first saft and having a longitudinal axis (22) which passes through the coupling center (10) at a small angle with respect to the axis of the first end-piece, said second end-piece having a groove (15) formed between two arms (15a, 15b), each of these arms being connected to the solid block of this second end-piece by an intermediate portion constituting a base (15c, 15d) for said arms and serving to retain or to drive the arm from the solid block of this end-piece, said groove containing said first oscillation axis (20) and said toothing in such a manner that the first end-piece is capable of oscillation through a small angle about this oscillation axis while enabling torque about the axis of the first end-piece to create torque about the axis of the second end-piece by applying thrust transmission forces resulting from the thrust exerted by this toothing on said arms in bearing zones (7, 8, 15e, 15f) which are symmetrically disposed in pairs about said coupling center, said thrust forces being opposite and substantially perpendicular to the axes of the end-pieces and to the first oscillation axis, said bases being suitable for withstanding the bending moments resulting from the application of said torque-transmitting thrust forces, the base (5a) of the toothing being situated longitudinally behind the bearing zone (7) of this thoothing and substantially at the same distance from the axis of the first end-piece as said bearing zone, and the bases of the arms (15c) being situated longitudinally behind the bearing zones (15e) of the arms and substantially at the same distance from the axis of the second end-piece as said bearing zones, in such a manner as to avoid the device extending diametrically substantially any further than the diametrical distance between the symmetrically disposed bearing zones which constitutes the lever arm for transmitting torque, said groove (15) being sufficiently deep to enable the first end-piece to oscillate about a second oscillation axis passing through the coupling center 10) and perpendicular both to the first oscillation axis and to the axis of the first end-piece, - a slide member (4a, 4b) being interposed between the toothing (5, 6) of the first end-piece and the arms (15a, 15b) of the groove (15) of the second end-piece, said slide member being hollow and presenting concave cylindrical bearing surfaces cooperating with the convex cylindrical bearing surfaces of the toothing with sufficient clearance to enable the first end-piece to oscillate about the first oscillation axis (20), said slide member further presenting, on eithe side of the flanks of said toothing, outher sliding flanks (12, 13) which are plane and perpendicular to the second oscillation axis (21), the arms (15a, 15b) of the groove (15) having facing plane inner slide faces that cooperate with the slide flanks (12, 13), of the slide member with sufficient clearance to enable the slide member and the first end-piece to oscillate about the second oscillation axis, said clearance being sufficient to enable these oscillations, but not being great enough to interfere with the transmission of torque between said end-pieces, - first (11) and second bowls (14) being hollowed out in said first (1) and second end-pieces (2), said bowls forming two portions of a spherical slide surface, extending respectively around the axes (9, 22) of said end-pieces, and belonging to a commone sphere centered to said coupling center (10), - a spherical thrust ball (3) of the same diameter being disposed in a thrust relationship inside said bowls to transmit axial thrust between said end-pieces without loading said toothing (5, 6) or said slide member (4a, 4b), - said toothing being constituted by two teeth (5, 6) on either side of said ball, - said groove (15) extending on either side of said ball, - said slide member being constituted by two separate slide members (4a, 4b) on either side of said ball and each comprising two arms which are disposed on either side of an associated tooth an which have said concave cylindrical bearing surfaces and said plane slide flanks (12, 13), these two arms being interconnected by a base leaving sufficient clearance between itself and the bottom of the groove (15) to enable oscillation about said second oscillation axis (21).